Over the years, thanks to HBO, I’ve learned quite a bit about dragons, Wight Walkers, and Valyrian steel. This year, before I routinely cancelled my subscription, I gave into the hype and watched Chernobyl. After doing so, I couldn’t help but draw some lessons applicable to today’s business world. Before reading any further, please be advised I’ve included a nuclear disaster’s worth of spoilers below.
Corporate Communism
In the miniseries’ pivotal moment, main character, and nuclear physicist Valero Legasov, surprises the scientific community when he not only testifies to operator negligence at the plant but also a host of bad decisions made by the Soviet Government and their subsequent cover up. In response, the KGB isolates him from his colleagues and takes away all his professional achievements. There was no need to kill him because his exposure to nuclear contamination would, in a few years, do the job for them.
Costly Corners Cut
Inspired by our news shows, we may fight tooth and nail to preserve a free and open marketplace. How else can we foster innovation and healthy competition? Remarkably, inside our corporations, we permit a version of communist rule. By this I refer not to the “we’re all equal” ideal but instead the “never question the state” reality of most communist governments. We therefore resolve to keep our praise public and our complaints private.
The nuclear reactors throughout the Soviet Union at the time we built in such a way that a disaster was bound to happen. They each had the same emergency shutoff feature that used rods of an element called Boron. When the reactor produced too much nuclear energy, the rods were moved close to the nuclear elements to slow down or stop the reaction.
To save money, the Soviet government made the tips that secured the rods out of graphite. Graphite, under extreme conditions like those at Chernobyl, doesn’t slow nuclear energy production, but enhances it. It was like throwing gas on a flame. As a result, the reactor exploded and began steadily throwing more radiation into the atmosphere per day than 48 Hiroshima bombs.
I suspect most of us are thankful not to work in such dangerous environments! The average American is much more likely to die of heart disease or Cancer than a nuclear explosion. Yet, somehow, the growth of insurance deductibles, premiums, and co-pays always seem to far out-pace wages. Yes, healthcare costs in our country are out of control but is that the fault of employees themselves? In the name of pleasing investors we shift the health cost burden to employees.
We All Sacrifice More Than We Think
Although many of the workers who worked at the plant or responded to the disaster died, not all knew the risks. They accepted, in some cases, large promised payouts without knowing they’d never be around to collect them. Many of them endured painful deaths over weeks as nuclear contamination melted their bodies at a cellular level.
Few us will ever have to make that kind of sacrifice. Yet, it’s not unheard of to spend 1/4 to 1/3 of our lives at work. If that sounds low, remember we also have to sleep. Does the time we spend at work adequately support the rest of our lives? That’s a question everyone must answer for themselves. That requires us, however, to take the time to think about the true meaning and value of the work we do.
Will our sad state of affairs every change? Not if we don’t. Instead of complaining, we can challenge our employers, current and prospective, to prove they value employees more than their competitors. After all, isn’t that what a free market is for?
Sincerely,